President of Haiti angry at ‘violation of dignity’

Government to wait for inquiry findings

HAITI’S PRESIDENT has condemned the “serious violation of human dignity” by Oxfam following the sex allegations against aid workers in the country.

The charity has issued an “unreserved apology” to the Government, donors, supporters and the people of Haiti over its handling of incidents including the alleged use of prostitutes by workers, in the earthquake-hit country in 2011.

Haitian president Jovenel Moise said: “What happened is an extremely serious violation of human dignity. This case is all the more odious because the funds which financed these crimes were obtained from the British people in a spirit of altruism and solidarity towards the Haitian people.”

He added: “Let it be clear to all of Haiti’s international partners, if their personnel exploit or do wrong to our citizens when they are supposed to be ‘aiding’ them, we will not be inclined to tolerate it and we will not tolerate it.”

Oxfam’s leaders in Haiti are expected to be called in for crisis talks with Mr Moise’s government as it considers its response.

Meanwhile, International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt is due to pledge £5m of Government funding to help protect vulnerable children across the globe following allegations of sexual abuse by Oxfam staff in Haiti. She is due to make the announcement in a speech today in Sweden. She said she was taking the issue “very seriously”.

A DECISION on whether to withdraw public funding from Oxfam over the aid worker sex scandal will not be taken “hastily”, International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt has said.

The charity has issued an “unreserved apology” to the Government, donors, supporters and the people of Haiti over its handling of sex allegations, including the use of prostitutes by workers, in the earthquake-hit country in 2011.

Ms Mordaunt said she would take the issue “very seriously” but stressed she would be guided by a Charity Commission inquiry into Oxfam while deciding whether to pull funding.

The charity received £31.7m from the Government in 2016/17, but the support has been put at risk by the scandal, which led to the resignation of its deputy chief executive Penny Lawrence.

Ms Mordaunt said: “I know people will be worried about the charity, they’ll be worried about the money, but we need to be guided by what the Charity Commission are doing and also I have made it very clear to Oxfam what we expect to see from them.

“These decisions shouldn’t be taken hastily, but I am considering them.”

The Minister spoke after former Conservative leader Lord Hague warned against cutting the foreign aid budget in the wake of the scandal.

Writing in a national newspaper, the former Foreign Secretary said “a reduction in aid would be a strategic blunder, ultimately damaging our own national interest and our ability to deal with one of the biggest problems heading our way”.

He said there was an “overwhelming strategic, as well as moral, imperative to deliver aid to the world’s poorest people”, but that the sector needs to show it is setting and meeting the highest standards. “The case for the type of work done by Oxfam is too strong to allow it to be undermined by bad behaviour and inadequate standards of disclosure or investigation,” he said.

The Charity Commission said Oxfam may not have “fully and frankly disclosed material details” when it first investigated allegations of misconduct in 2011.

The watchdog also said it had concerns about the charity’s handling of incidents since, and the impact that these have both had on public trust and confidence.

On Monday, Helen Evans, Oxfam’s former global head of safeguarding, told Channel 4 News that she begged senior staff, Ministers and the regulator to act on the sexual abuse allegations.

She also detailed three new allegations made against Oxfam staff overseas in a single day.

Four members of Oxfam staff were dismissed and three, including the country director Roland van Hauwermeiren, resigned before the end of the 2011 investigation. According to a national newspaper, Oxfam knew about concerns over the conduct of Mr van Hauwermeiren and another man when they worked in Chad before they were given senior roles in Haiti.

I have made it very clear to Oxfam what we expect to see from them. Penny Mordaunt, International Development Secretary.

AS THE Foreign Secretary who committed the Tories to spending 0.7 per cent of GDP on overseas aid, William Hague is, understandably, deeply saddened by the scandal engulfing Oxfam and other charities working in the developing world as new revelations come to light.

The former Richmond MP also knows that the continuing lurid claims about the sexual exploitation of the most vulnerable, the victims that the charities were supposedly helping, will make it harder to justify the £13bn a year that Britain currently spends in this field when domestic policy priorities are denied funds.

“The case for an aid budget that tackles the world’s biggest issues will get stronger, not weaker, in the years ahead. The response to this appalling scandal needs to be tough enough to convince the public that their generosity will not be abused,” says Lord Hague.

However the former Richmond MP, and scandalhit charities, need to realise that the benevolence of donors – and taxpayers – can no longer be taken for granted unless urgent steps are taken to restore the public’s trust.

First, there must be an urgent inquiry to establish the scale of the cover-up and why the Charity Commission, and Department for International Development, were not fully appraised.

Second, Government grants should be put on hold until Ministers are fully satisfied that recipient charities have adopted the most robust safeguarding practices, and that these are underpinned by total transparency.

Third, Ministers need to demonstrate, far more coherently, that aid money is, indeed, being spent responsibly, and actually assisting the UK’s foreign and defence policy.

As one of the world’s leading economies, Britain has a moral duty to help the world’s poor despite the widely held belief that charity should, in fact, begin at home. Equally, Ministers are perfectly within their rights to expect charities like Oxfam to honour the spirit in which this money was given – or be stripped of funding – before they cause even more embarrassment to the wider aid sector.